Abadi: Kirkuk Resumption Protects Reservoir

Prime Minister Haidar al Abadi (pictured) has remarked that the resumption of pumping oil into the Kurdish export pipeline from Kirkuk–from 70,000 bpd to an expected 150,000 bpd, is due to preserving the reservoir in one of the world’s oldest oilfields. Previously oil was being re-injected by the federal North Oil Company who did not want the Kurds to have access to it after a payment dispute.

During the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein encouraged very rapid extraction from Kirkuk, a supergiant field with a high API, making it easier to refine.

Rapid extraction is thought to have damaged some reservoirs in the formation. Abadi also noted the importance of using gas in the field, which was impossible when oil was re-injected by the federal North Oil Company.

Abadi noted,

“We have to produce oil in order to get gas. This is a very old oil field, if this field does not produce oil, it can be degraded. So we were told to pump oil from Kirkuk to Ceyhan.”